‘My son has not slept properly in weeks. Four nurses have resigned. Two said the environment was too tense. One said he was inconsolable. The last left at midnight and refused to return.’
Mara listened.
‘I want you to stay as Leo’s full-time caregiver.’
She blinked. ‘Me?’
‘Yes.’
‘I was sent to clean.’
‘I saw what happened when you held him.’
‘That does not make me qualified for a household like this.’
‘No,’ Adrian said. ‘It makes you qualified for him.’
The salary he offered made Mara’s breath catch. It was not just generous. It was impossible. Her mother’s rent, the hospital bills, the old car that coughed smoke at every red light, all of it flashed through her mind like doors unlocking.
She should have accepted.
But the dark pantry remained between them.
‘Mr. Bellmont,’ she said carefully, ‘who was supposed to be watching Leo after the nurse left?’
Adrian went still.
Before he could answer, something shattered outside the office.
He opened the door.
Celeste stood in the hallway, one hand pressed to her throat. Broken crystal glittered near her bare feet.
‘I came to ask if your guest wanted coffee,’ she said.
Adrian looked at the glass, then at her face. ‘You were listening.’
‘It is my home too.’
Mara rose from her chair and instinctively moved closer to Leo’s bassinet.
Celeste saw it and laughed softly. ‘How touching. The cleaning girl has been here three hours and already thinks she belongs.’
Adrian’s voice lowered. ‘Who watched Leo after Nurse Patton left?’
Celeste lifted her chin. ‘I checked on him.’
‘That is not an answer.’
‘Fine. I moved him.’
The hallway went silent except for the rain.
Adrian took one step toward her. ‘You moved him where?’
Celeste’s eyes hardened. ‘To the pantry for a moment. He would not stop screaming. I needed quiet. You needed sleep. The entire building needed quiet.’
‘A moment?’ Mara said before she could stop herself.
Celeste turned on her. ‘Do not involve yourself.’
Mara reached into the pocket of her apron. When she had lifted Leo’s blanket from the pantry floor, a torn strip of pale blue satin had clung to the fabric. She had kept it without knowing why.
Now she held it out.
The strip matched the torn cuff of Celeste’s robe.
Adrian looked at it, then at Celeste’s sleeve.
Celeste’s face changed.
Only for a second.
Then she smiled. ‘This is ridiculous.’
‘How long?’ Adrian asked.
‘You are overreacting.’
‘How long was my son in that pantry?’
Celeste’s mouth tightened. ‘Long enough for him to learn that crying does not make servants appear.’
Mara felt the sentence in her stomach.
Adrian looked as if he had been hit.
Celeste stepped closer, lowering her voice into something intimate and poisonous. ‘You think I am cruel. I am the only one willing to tell you the truth. Elise is gone. The baby is not a shrine. You cannot run an empire around his moods.’
‘He is nine months old.’
‘He is a liability.’
The word cracked through the hallway.
Leo stirred in the office and let out a soft whimper.
Mara moved without waiting for permission. She picked him up, settled him against her shoulder, and hummed the first notes of the lullaby. He quieted almost instantly.
Celeste watched with
